These rolls are almost impossibly fluffy and light, but simultaneously rich. Like garlicy, buttery, rosemary-y clouds. They also look beautiful; everytime I make them they come out uniform and pleasingly golden brown. I have been kind of intimidated by baking bread, and rolls and buns in particular. But these aren’t difficult to make, and the dough is very soft and pleasant to work with. They do take a bit of time, with a couple of rises to get their perfect texture. But if you want a lazy weekend afternoon baking project with really satisfying results, this is one I would highly recommend. They also reward a bit of precision. Use weights instead of volume measures and weigh out the individual buns to get them just right.
This is also another plug for having skim milk powder in your pantry. In my last post, I talked about milk powder’s ability to add toasty, nutty flavour. In these buns it adds richness, helps with colour development and tenderness. It’s an excellent, versatile ingredient to have on hand. These buns are really enriched, in addition to the milk powder they have milk, butter and egg. All that fat can inhibit gluten development, which is why using higher-protein bread flour and a long knead are necessary to ensure that the buns develop strength.
Take care with the long mix in the stand mixer. They need 15-20 mins of kneading on medium high and every time I make these, my mixer tries to vibrate itself right off the counter while the dough is mixings. Once I went upstairs to do some laundry during this step and when I came back the front edge of the mixer was hanging perilously off the counter, threatening to hurl itself to the floor. Just check in on the mixer every few minutes to ensure that you don’t have an unfortunate mixer disaster while making these.
I adapted these, just a little, from Cloudy Kitchen, whose recipes are always brilliant, but these really were perfect. They would be great with other herbs or spices mixed in to the butter topping. Or the original garlic butter is really incredible too!
Make ahead tips:
I have baked these buns in advance, and just rewarmed them briefly in the oven, wrapped in aluminum foil. If you bake ahead, hold off on brushing with garlic, rosemary butter until you are ready to serve them so they don’t get soggy. You can make the garlic, rosemary butter in advance as well and just microwave it for about 30 seconds to remelt.
I have also tried doing the first rise slowly in the fridge. This is helpful so that you don’t have to do the whole thing in one day, which is a bit of a time commitment. Just pop the dough in the fridge for 8-24 hours instead of doing the first rise on the counter. Then let the dough come back to room temperature before proceeding with the rest of the recipe. I found this worked really well.
fluffy garlic rosemary dinner rolls
adapted from Cloudy Kitchen
150g whole milk, lukewarm (around 110°F)
40g water, lukewarm (around 110°F)
1 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp active dry yeast
2 large eggs, room temperature (reserve one egg for egg wash)
245g bread flour
50g all-purpose flour
20g milk powder (skim or whole milk powder is fine)
¾ tsp kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
45g softened butter
garlic rosemary butter
3 tbs butter
1 clove garlic, very finely minced
1 sprig rosemary, roughly chopped
large pinch of big flake salt like Maldon
In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine milk, water, sugar and yeast, stirring to combine. Allow the yeast to bloom for 5 minutes. You should see foamy, bubbly yeast at the top of the liquid.
Add all remaining ingredients (holding back one egg for the egg wash) to the bowl of the mixer and mix on low speed briefly until the bulk of the flour is moistened. Increase mixer speed to medium-high and mix for 15-20 minutes. The dough should form a very smooth, soft mass and it may ‘climb’ up the dough hook as it mixes.
Gently turn out the dough on a floured surface using a spatula to ease it out of the bowl if needed. Shape the dough into a tight ball, and place it in a bowl lightly coated with neutral oil.
Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm spot until it has roughly doubled in size, for around 1½ - 2½ hours.
Note: If you want to do a slow overnight rise in the fridge, pop your plastic-wrapped bowl in the fridge for 8-24 hours at this point rather than rising on the counter at this point. When you are ready to proceed, let the dough come back to room temperature and follow along the rest of the recipe.
Cut and shape the rolls: cover a kitchen scale with a piece of parchment paper or use a tupperware container to avoid getting your scale all doughy. Weigh the dough and divide the weight by 12 to find the weight for each roll (the dough should be 600 grams, so in that case each ball should be 50 grams. The dough may weigh slightly more or less so weighing it will provide the most even and attractive rolls).
Cut chunks of dough using a bench scraper and weigh each one, adding or subtracting a bit of dough until each dough lump reaches your desired weight. Form each dough lump into a ball and then use a slightly cupped/claw-shaped hand to roll each ball gently but firmly on the counter, seam-side down, in a small circular motion, until you have a very smooth, round ball. If there are any visible seams remaining, pinch them tightly together and continue to roll until smooth.
Place each rolled ball under a piece of plastic wrap while you form the others, making sure to keep a bit of space between them. Let the dough balls rest for 10 minutes and then re-roll each ball briefly. While the rolls rest, butter a 9"x13" pan.
Place rolls in the prepared pan, leaving an even amount of space between each ball and the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and rise for around an hour. After 40 minutes of rising, heat the oven to 375° F. The rolls are done when they are puffy, and risen enough so they are touching or nearly touching each other.
Mix the remaining egg with a teaspoon of water and brush this over each roll lightly. You won’t need to use all of the egg wash (I save the rest of mine to mix into scrambled eggs later in the week because I hate to use a whole egg when you only need maybe ⅓ of it).
Bake rolls for 15-18 minutes, or until they are deeply golden brown. While the rolls bake, make the butter topping: melt butter and garlic together in a small saucepan until the garlic is very fragrant. Remove from heat and stir in rosemary.
When the buns are baked, immediately brush them with garlic rosemary butter. Sprinkle the flaky salt over them and serve right away.
Notes: If you are making the buns in advance, reserve the butter until just prior to serving. Reheat the buns, covered in aluminum foil, briefly in a 350° F oven. Brush the hot buns with garlic butter and sprinkle with salt and serve right away.
These really are best immediately after they are baked, but if you have leftover buns I recommend microwaving them for about 15 seconds to revive them to nearly their original fresh glory.
